Stage fall left Australian woman a paraplegic

A London theatre company has pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches after an Australian stage manager was left a paraplegic when she fell through an unsecured door above the stage.

The woman spent six months in hospital following the accident at Soho Theatre Company in central London on June 9, 2012, Westminster Magistrates Court heard today.

Westminster City Council, which brought the prosecution against the company, said the woman, who was not named, was unable to lead a normal life and would not be able to return to her chosen career following the nearly three-metre plunge.

The court heard the door had been adapted for a production of Don Giovanni and was subsequently noted as a safety risk on May 6, 2012, but nothing was done and the woman fell through the opening just over a month later.

"There should have been systems in place to assess the risk of walking out from a door into thin air," Alistair Smith, representing the council, told the court.

"At the most basic level, the placing of signage and/or securing of the door."

District Judge John Zani said it was left unsecured for "not an inconsiderable period of time when anybody could have accessed that door and fallen through and have been injured either to a lesser or a greater degree".

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He sent the case to Crown Court for sentencing, saying the company potentially deserved to be fined a higher sum than he could order in the magistrates' court.

He said the victim, who the court heard is now a law student, had expressed in a very comprehensive four-and-a-half page victim impact statement, the devastating effects the accident has had, and will continue to have, on her life.

Eleanor Sanderson, representing the theatre, said the company, which had operated as a charity for the last 14 years, made an annual profit of STG63,000 ($A115,000) last year and entered the two guilty pleas on its behalf.

Ms Sanderson said the theatre's bosses had attended court and wished to express their sincere and deep regret for what happened.

No date for sentencing at Southwark Crown Court was set.

The council later said in a statement that the woman was Australian and was a contractor working for a production company running a show called Boys.

In order to prepare the stage for the evening show, she needed the stage lights to be put on and it was while she was trying to locate the light switches that she fell through the Juliet door and onto the stage below.